Sam Bankman-Fried
Samuel Bankman-Fried is an entrepreneur and crypto exchange executive who is the founder and former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform FTX. He is also the founder of Alameda Research, a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm and liquidity provider. In late 2022, FTX experienced a crisis that led to a collapse in FTX's native cryptocurrency FTT. During the crisis, Bankman-Fried announced that he would close operations at Alameda Research and resigned as CEO of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy.[1] Known as SBF, Bankman-Fried was one of the richest people in crypto, with a net worth at its peak of an estimated $26.5 billion. Most of his wealth, which he has said he would eventually donate to charity, was tied up in ownership of about half of FTX and a share of its FTT tokens.[2] FTX spent about $1 billion on acquisitions and, according to Bankman-Fried, planned more mergers and acquisitions. FTX reportedly may also have been interested in payments businesses, non-fungible token (NFT) firms, and the metaverse.[3] The U.S. filed criminal charges against Bankman-Fried in December 2022, and the Royal Bahamas Police arrested him, after FTX collapsed and declared bankruptcy in November. The SEC charged him with misusing customer funds deposited with FTX to pay Alameda Research.[4] In November 2023, Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy following a month-long trial in a Manhattan court. Jurors deliberated for less than five hours. He faces as much as 20 years in prison on each of the most serious charges.[5] Background[edit]Bankman-Fried began his career at Jane Street Capital, a quantitative trading firm, in the summer of 2013, working as an intern and trading ETFs. In October 2017, Bankman-Fried left Jane Street and went to work at the Centre for Effective Altruism as the director of development.[6] He founded Alameda Research, a quantitative crypto trading firm, in Hong Kong in 2017. He also helped in the creation of the crypto coin Serum, aka SRM.[7] Bankman-Fried managed $2.5 billion of assets through Alameda Research, according to Forbes. He launched FTX, the now defunct crypto derivatives exchange, in 2019.[8] Education[edit]Bankman-Fried attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he majored in physics, minored in mathematics and graduated with a degree in 2014. [9] Testimony[edit]
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